THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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In Due Time We Reap. It oftentimes proves a great developer of faith just to go on sowing the good seed year after year without any visible signs of life in the various soils but “simply trusting-^that is SHOP all,” that some time, some WORK place, it will take root and prosper; then how refresh ing after the many days to be given tangible evidence that the Word has taken root in some heart and prospered. While actin'g as usher one Sunday afternoon recently in the Church of the Open Door, two splendid specimens of manhood walked down the aisle, and one smilingly held out his hand calling me by name and said, “You probably don’t recall me, but you are the man who led me to Christ over three years ago;” and as I looked into that clean, bright face and felt the warmth and grip of heart and hand, it sent a thrill, and I seemed to be walking on air. In writing to an old faithful steward of God recently, we remarked that one of the most promising phases of our shop work, seldom mentioned in re ports or meetings are the reports that often come to us after many days from the men students out on their fields, at home and abroad, praising God for the practical experience gained on these shop assignments. How we recall timid, shy students only accustomed to hear their own voices in public when reading a verse of Scripture at a Young People’s Meeting, plunged into this new and hard school and«, watch them coming forth with faces strong as lions able to stand before crowds of antagonistic, un godly men, ringing out strong messages, for their Lord. These boys have learned to do things by doing them and “diver sities of gifts” thus discovered and de veloped are now being greatly used of God in the reaching of men for Christ. We recall one of these mighty men, a successful pastor of a large and spirit ual church in the West, who wrote us during the past week. Such a retiring, timid lad he was, as he came to us from the farm and we recall how when he gave his last message to the men at the Santa Fe shops, they crowded around him with strong grips, bidding him God speed. Now that the time has come when God is calling us to another field, we would like to ring out a note of praise unto Him for all His faithfulness in the years He has honored us in the shop
work; and for all who have faithfully laid hold of Him in prevailing prayer for the work in shops, engine houses, car barns, missions, jails, and streets in “our boys” behalf. Don’t forget to pray for the new man.—D. T. Cant. Meeting the Industrial Unrest. During the month, at the suggestion of one of the Field Managers, we made a trip over their Pipe Line from the West Side Fields to the large refinery ____ near Port Costa, visiting THE OIL station after station. The FIELDS oil is pumped through large six and eight inch pipes for a distance of over three hundred miles, by. means of stations located about fif teen miles apart. This pipe line goes through some very desolate country, as at many of the stations there is nothing but the pumping station itself, the boarding house and from four to six other houses. Men stationed in these dreary places become very lonely at times and, before the country went “dry,” it was the custom for some to lay off, visit some of the towns, and spend their money for liquor, only re turning to the “old job” after they were “broke.” We have been able to do quite a bit of personal work at these places, and have been greatly blessed in it. On account of the fearful heat, it is almost impossible to hold any inside meetings during the summer months, but we have had some open air serv ices. There seems to be much unrest indus trially, and a feeling that “something is going to happen,” which serves to make one realize the truly perilous times in which we live, and the near coming of the Lord, which is the truth we are striving to stress among sinners as well as saints. False doctrine abounds, and one finds all kinds of “re ligions.” One old man showed us an old cross which had been brought from Jerusalem and seemed to think the fact that he possessed it would give him some sort of standing before God. He was very superstitious, but we showed him what God has to say about such things in the third chapter of Romans, prayed with him, and left him some Gospel tracts, believing that the simple Word would do its work. There are many things to show the “signs of the times.” At one place we found a church which had once had a
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